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Exercise after pregnancy and childbirth

Whether your goal is to run a marathon, make it through spin class – or simply to make it up the stairs to your flat, be sure you return to exercise after pregnancy and childbirth in stages. Read more about how here.

As a new parent, your time and enthusiasm for exercise will vary, as will how much support you have from the people around you. Exercise doesn’t have to mean strength training at the gym or a trail run – it might also be unrolling a yoga mat on the floor beside your baby, or pushing the pram through a park. And your goal doesn’t have to be running a 10k in a certain time (if that isn’t what you want). Rather, you should mainly be aiming for a body that can take on the coming years of carrying a baby around, playing hide and seek, or pulling a sledge up a hill (because trust us – that’s going to happen).

How do you start exercising after giving birth?

A key factor to remember is that your body has had a long break from working out and is in a weakened state; it isn’t ‘just’ recovering from childbirth that needs time. Your muscles are also weaker than they were before. That’s why your return to exercise should happen in phases: in a sense, you need to train for starting to work out. Before you can run, you literally have to walk. Start short and gradually go longer, as you can handle more. All those walks with the pram aren’t just good for helping the baby fall asleep; they’re also beneficial for the new mother.

Walking is also a fantastic way to test your stamina (long walks) and your strength/capacity (fast walks). If things seem to be going well and you want to pick up the pace, try a light jog – aim for a few minutes at first, alternating with walking. From there, you can gradually jog for more time. Keep in mind that you might react with symptoms after a few days – so give your body a chance to do so between each workout. In other words, don’t start with a daily run – take a few days off between sessions.

How do you find your abdominal muscles after pregnancy and childbirth?

Maybe you’ve heard, or noticed, that your abdominal muscles separate during pregnancy. It’s true, but only the ‘six-pack muscles’ on the front of the tummy separate. The other abdominal muscles (yes, there are more!) are intact, but weakened after a long pregnancy. An initial step after giving birth is to locate your abdominals again – you might not believe it, but they’re in there somewhere. Try this: lie on your back with bent knees, place your hands on your waist, and start laughing – you’ll feel your abdominal muscles.

What are good ab exercises after giving birth?

First and foremost, start thinking about your posture. Because when it comes to training your abdominals after pregnancy, remember that it’s all about two things: strength and posture. You may need to think about your posture multiple times a day in order to gradually regain your neutral spine; it will be very easy to slip back into your pregnancy spine. As you focus on your posture, aim to use as little force as possible so that you can manage to hold the position for a long time without enormous effort. At first, it may be fairly difficult to hold your spine and back in a neutral position, so you also need to work on your abdominal strength.

It will take a few months to work up your strength and – as with all other post-childbirth exercise – it needs to be done at a slow and steady pace: better to do a bit of exercise regularly than to do intense but infrequent sessions. If you go too hard, it will strain your back, which is what happens if your abs can’t handle the exercise. There are all sorts of ways to strength-train your stomach; the key is to find something that is fun and feels good. One tip is to vary your ab exercises in order to find a position that doesn’t strain your back. Remember that sit-ups are not a good place to begin, because they put a great deal of strain on the neck and back – especially if your abdominals aren’t very strong yet. A gentler tummy exercise to do instead is to lie on your back, exhale, tighten your stomach and lift one foot ever so slightly from the floor. Place a hand by the small of your back and feel to make sure you haven’t deepened the curve as you lift your leg. If you can’t keep your back straight through the exercise, it’s an indication that you need to take it a little easier, because your abs can’t handle the exercise or number of reps just yet.

What about running after pregnancy?

There is no specified moment when it’s considered okay to start running after giving birth – you will just have to you know your body and see how it reacts. The connective tissue, which holds your organs and muscles in place, might take up to a year to be as steady as it was before pregnancy, and for some people, running isn’t a good idea until then.

For all physical activity, a good rule of thumb is that you should be able to do it without leaking urine and without feeling pressure in your pelvis. If you feel a sense of weight/downward rounding, take it seriously and avoid doing whatever caused it. And if you’re experiencing a sense of heaviness after every run, your body simply isn’t ready yet – so it’s best to go back to walking again, or find something else that is more comfortable. Running is one of the most intense activities you can do for your pelvis. Cycling, skiing and the elliptical trainer are much gentler forms of exercise, because you always have one foot in contact with the ground (known as a ‘closed chain’).

If you want to strength train after giving birth, what should you keep in mind?

When it comes to heavy lifting and strength training, the same rules apply as for running. You shouldn’t be leaking urine and the exercise should not produce a sensation of heaviness in your pelvis. Here, too: don’t go too hard. Rather, give your body a few days of rest between workouts in order to take note of any symptoms. A common mistake that many people make when lifting weights is holding their breath, which is a bad strategy because it increases the pressure on your pelvis. Instead, try to exhale, because the downward load below will be reduced.

The exercise should feel good for your body!

It might feel like society puts a lot of pressure on women to quickly regain their pre-baby body – almost without a trace of the incredible work your body did throughout pregnancy. But it just doesn’t have to be that way – so don’t feel any stress about how you ‘should’ look. Instead, take things one step at a time and remember: the most important thing is that you can manage to pull your child on a sledge up a hill. Exercise isn’t black or white, on or off. It should make your body feel good and it should make you able to do more. So do the right amount for you and try to get plenty of movement in your day-to-day life. The great thing about pregnancy is that it often teaches you about how your body speaks to you. So listen to what it says after an activity or exercise. It should feel good!

Please note that all information above is based on Swedish recommendations.

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